Review rating:

Don’t waste your money

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Nov 18, 2018

Terrible reception cuts in and out jibberish is all you get free to air with HD recording box much better you can watch tv and movies uninterrupted but fetch no way jubberish crap pitcher flickers and breakes up sick of it only had this crap for two mths waste of money CRAP FETCH.

I dont know how to rate my fetch box .

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Nov 11, 2018

If my fetch set box had ever worked maybe i could have rated it better. I've had the thing for 2 weeks now and not a zac from it. Optus tells me they are working on it and it will be fixed within 24 to 48 hours....they have said this for 2 weeks now....i dont think they know what the problem is. I've had enough they can come and fetch their stupid box...

Good PVR and more

5 out of 5,
reviewed on Nov 05, 2018

Had Topfield before, but no longer operate here.
Easy to record shows, has a good series tag where you can just opt for the latest series. Easy to use remote, not too cluttered.
Great for Catch up TV and You Tube. Seems good for Netflix, Stan etc, but as I never use them can't say for sure. Now and again they'll give you a free month for one of their Pay packages or a free movie. Haven't had any trouble with steaming, but quality does vary depending on what else you're using.
One small quibble is they don't have a slow mo button and you can only skip 5 mins, not 10s or 1 min like the topfield

Continually drops internet connection while other devices are connected.

2 out of 5,
reviewed on Oct 30, 2018

Loses internet connection every few days although other devices are successfully still connected. Gets frozen while going through steps to reconnect, extremely frustrating and disappointing, TIVO worked so well with no connection issues at all. Interface very long winded when all you want to do is watch recorded TV shows.

No Regrets

5 out of 5,
reviewed on Oct 12, 2018

Had the Fetch Mighty a while now and haven't had any significant issues. The only ones i recall is sometimes it has lost internet connection but each time that was restored with a reboot of the device. Occaisionly get HDMI issues but repowering Fetch and/or TV fixes that.

Never had trouble recording programs even doing muliple at once. Its brilliant how you can record 2 TV shows and watch a third at the same time. I like how it will continue to record while in standby mode, and the series record is a great feature to save missing shows or forgetting to record an episode.

I find the menus easy enough to use and i like that Fetch does firmware enhancements from time to time. The remote is easy to use but could be even better if there was a way to backlight all keys. Or put raised bumps on some buttons so you can locate buttons by feel. Finding buttons with lights off watching movies is difficult. I also haven't been able to get the remote to control the TV but thats probably just the TVs fault

Something i wish it had was an easier way to skip ads on recorded shows, like a programmable skip period. The 5 minute skip button is too long for ads. Also the Downloads list would be better if it retained the history of downloads rather than just what is currently downloading.

Overall very pleased with it and still has plenty of Hard drive space available even though i rarely delete any recordings. Going to buy another or a Mini soon to setup multi-room watching of recordings and movies.

Everything Tivo Was But So Much Better

5 out of 5,
reviewed on Sep 22, 2018

The mighty is brilliant. We have 3 around the house and they are all connected. The menu looks good and is easy to use. I also use it to stream from my pc using twonky server. The only thing I would like to see improved is for it to have a rubbish bin like a pc, as when you delete a show it is gone forever and can not be retrieved. And the thing that impressed me the most is they are constantly updated the software with new improvements and add on's.

Catch up TV apps function poorly

3 out of 5,
reviewed on Sep 20, 2018

Overall, a happy experience with Fetch TV independent of Optus. Upgrading from PlayTV on PS3 which was getting pretty long in the tooth. My biggest gripe is that catch up stations like iView and SBSonDemand don't seem to run as separate apps but are overlayed onto the Fetch GUI. They have much less interactivity than the same apps on my dad's LG TV. e.g. There are limited categories, you don't actually sign in to your own account, search is useless and it's incredibly hard to find programs that are straight forward on other platforms - the ABC news on iView took me about 5 minutes to find - WTH? Extremely frustrating and deciding if it's a show stopper. Pretty good in other respects - Freeview, Netflix and movies all work well.

Good service, reasonably priced packages

Once you get over the shock of the initial $399 outlay, you get an excellent product. Solid and robust performance, have had no problems (other than occasional NBN dropout which isn't their fault).

Reasonably priced channel packages, integrated with free to air channels and services like Stan and Netflix. Streams well, good easy to use interface and no problems with recording (including series tag).

After suffering with Foxtel for five miserable years this is viewers heaven.

DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS P.O.S!!! TOTAL CRAP!!!

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Sep 11, 2018

This fetch tv mighty is the worse tv streamer box iv ever used! very dissapointed in the features, changing channels and scrolling around from apps is so damm slow and it’s not user friendly!
I have no patients for this kind of CRAP. After using my Apple TV I have high standards!!
They don’t even have an App Store, all the apps are already preinstalled. It doesn’t even compare to Apple TV & Roku.
After 5hrs receiving this Fetch tv, I decided to contact Optus..
Lucky for me, I complained to Optus customer service that I don’t want this POS anymore, I’m sending it back & awaiting for Optus to send me the free postage return form. And my Optus plan will be downgraded from $90 to $60 unlimited plan.

Worst decision ever

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Aug 23, 2018

This plastic piece of crap has been an expensive mistake that has done nothing but cause a headache. After 3 days of having the fetch TV we had to continually turn the set top box on and off, a month later and it no longer works, providing us with nothing but a black screen. I would NEVER recommend this time wasting expensive product.

Save your Money. Do research & go elsewhere

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Aug 21, 2018

A very expensive mistake. Having to replace a TIVO.
Starts with having to use a credit card to get it working, then you find out that if there is a problem you are on your own.
No phone numbers, call centre, service people, address anywhere, not even an on-line assistant.
Nothing but a list of what to try, then instructions on soft & hard (full) reset/restart methods.
Followed by, "Did this help Yes/No" and more options.
Save your money
Do research & go with a different product.
Try getting a proper service & help set-up that suits your needs.
If I could of, it would have been 0 or 1/2-star review.

The Fetch unit worked for 2 weeks then just hung.

2 out of 5,
reviewed on Aug 15, 2018

Was rather happy when all went well - for 2 weeks. Then one evening it just hung. I spent hours going thru the guidelines on how to restart the unit. The guides are quite useless as it assumes that the 'set up' screen will appear. But if it hangs, well it just hangs! You have to then follow all the steps for a 'soft' restart then a 'hard' restart using Fetch website for instructions but all the recommendations did not work. After a series of yes and no answers I am finally invited to write a comment to Fetch which I did. Then I get an email from someone who wants me to try all sorts of other ways to get it to restart. Many stressful hours to fix it.

Not bad, a lot of room for improvement.

3 out of 5,
reviewed on Aug 07, 2018

Was a TiVo user, Fetch is a good alternative, like other comments, it has issues with rewinding live TV, no slow motion, not able to jump to the end back to live TV, remote buttons are not very responsive to touch.

An issue I can see with the Fetch, and has been happening for awhile now is the software update process and has been having for a long period, time and time again the Fetch fails to either download or install the update without failing...seems the only option is to either perform a soft reset or a hard reset, which puts your Fetch back to factory default.....a lot of the cause is blamed on the isp.

Now I am sitting here looking at a Fetch that has been on 81% installing the update for over 2 hours and another one on 84%...why the Fetch try’s to update during prime time and not overnight...I just don’t understand. This would result in less issues with isp data speeds......but what I am looking at is the failure of the device to install the update....gonna have to perform a soft restart and hope it won’t require a hard restart as I will lose everything.

Poor effort on Fetch TV side of things and support is almost non-existent.

Ok but could be much better

3 out of 5,
reviewed on Jul 31, 2018

I've had the mighty for a while now and I'm a bit underwhelmed by it.
The concept of a STB was attractive - incl a PVR and subscription IP TV but it could be so much better.
Support is next to useless. It basically relies upon a reasonable manual and thats about all.
You can't search either TV or fetch Tv content.
The program guide is clunky.
It quickly eats your HD space when recording stuff.
i have a mini in the next room and watching recorded content across both is v clunky and hit and miss
When I found out it's owned by a Singapore company it kinda added up - it does remind of Optus - promises the world and delivers sub-standard service

Go For It

4 out of 5,
reviewed on Jul 28, 2018

Nice unit has 4 tuners built in so can record 4 tv channels at the same time, and also record Internet channels if you subscribe to any. subscription is $1 for 30 movies a month, $6 per channel pack each pack covers certain entertainment channels, Kids, News, etc. Plenty of storage space 1 TB hard drive. 4K quality if needed. 2 small problems Stan does not let you choose profiles, my remote its hard to press buttons. I was told Stan would be fixed with the next update. and they sent me a free remote great service. love the unit its a replacement for Topfield Masterpiece .
Hold out for the 20% Off with Good Guys. Normal retail $399 pay 20% less.

Dreadful. Save your money

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Jul 25, 2018

Remote control is dreadful, reminds me of the first ever remotes back in the 80/90's. Its also huge! Twice the size of my 75" tv remote.
You could learn a thing or two from TelstraTV, 100x better than this silly service.

Interface is dreadful. Slow, laggy, unresponsive. Device turns its-self off every day.
The whole device is fundamentally just shocking. Its horribly slow. Fetch box takes a minute to turn on every time you turn on the tv.
I honestly feel like no-one at FetchTV even tried this product at home before releasing it.
Record feature is almost useless. Never works, Can never record anything you want only certain tv shows at certain times.
God... i don't even know what else to say. I cant understand how a product this woeful is still around. Il give it 6-12 months before the company is bankrupt.
Biggest waste of $80.

Great when it goes

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Jul 17, 2018

Keeps disconnecting from the internet, now It won't let me do anything just say's connect to internet and won't, won't even reboot, can't even watch TV. This is the second box I've had, the first they said was faulty so they replaced it with another which is as bad. Total waste of good money

good when it works, really bad to try and fix problems

2 out of 5,
reviewed on Jul 12, 2018

I have a problem that seems to affect others. The system turns off and on. I followed all the steps offered and finally had to do a full reset that deleted all my recordings. The new setup lasted a month and then it started again. So frustrated Fetch TV is not my favourite.

Poor device poor operating and very poor service

1 out of 5,
reviewed on Jul 12, 2018

I have had fetch since nbn was installed. Is a 24 month contract so 12months still to go. So far had no service internet or otherwise for several weeks due to poor installation in the first place. Engineer was to eager to leave ASAP and did not check anything. Got several discounts on bill as no service! Still have had constant issues with the fetch TV, no pictures no sound only wants to record one thing st s time, when I was told up to four channels would record at once! Constant freezing. I must restart, soft reset, hard reset software update and everything else 2 a week or more. Wouldn’t mind but this box is hard wired. The wifi box not so bad! It’s was suggested I go and buy new leads or run a cable through the entire house and hard wire all boxes! Why the wifi one works! Also could I borrow s laptop from a neighbour and plug into internet to check speed! Give over. Finally I am expecting a new box to be delivered in two to three business days - hold this space!

Questions & Answers

How do I get a refund on my Fetch Mighty? I would have been an advocate until this week. The latest firmware update from Fetch has broken the ability to stream mkv files and the estimated date that they expect to return this capability is some time early next year. There recommendation for the lack of streaming is to copy files to a USB drive and plug the USB drive into the Fetch. Not exactly what I would call streaming. I have one box under warranty that I would expect to get a full refund upon as the expected period of not working is 20% of the warrnty period. The second box is out of warranty but only just and I would expect that at $400 one could expect to get more than 12 months functionality from it. What are my options for getting a refund on the second device or am I simply left with a brick and need to purchase some thing else to now replace the Fetch?